“We have nurses who can go in, monitor blood pressures, help with medication administration,” Home Health Services Director Linda Edmond, LBSW, LNHA, said. “All of those sorts of services that would encompass people who have the chronic disease needs.”

Those nurses collaborate with the patient and the doctor, Edmond said. These patients range from those with chronic diseases to others recovering from trauma.

Without home health, caring for these patients becomes a lot more costly and complicated.

“They would probably return to the hospital,” Edmond said. “They would have unnecessary hospital re-admissions. There would be more unnecessary trips to the emergency room and more frequent visits to the physician's office.”